Care home residents are some of our most vulnerable patients. Too often, they’re on a long list of medicines that hasn’t been reviewed in years. Some doing more harm than good.
We’re calling on the NHS to bring pharmacists into care homes, as part of a multidisciplinary team including doctors and nurses. A pharmacist would take ownership for the whole system of medicines and their use in a care home.
They work with residents directly to manage the medicines they’re on and their complex interactions, and modifying the prescriptions as their residents’ needs change. Their presence would have an added benefit: it would free up nurses to care for residents in a more holistic way.
In 2017, RPS encouraged the NHS to invest £20 million in creating 180 new jobs for pharmacists in care homes.
The result is clear, pharmacists in care homes:
- Increase care
- Reduce harm
- Reduce medicines waste.
It’s what care home residents deserve.